Humminbird Piranha MAX 4 DI Fishfinder

How well is it built?

The Piranha MAX 4 DI is a compact head unit with a 4.3-inch, 256-colour LCD. It sits on a gimbal mount that tilts and swivels, so you can angle the screen towards you and away from the glare, and the supplied XNT 9 DI T transducer is a transom-mount design.

It takes a 10.8 to 20 VDC input with a 180mA draw, so a 12V boat battery covers it and it should sip power over a long day. Output is 2,400W peak-to-peak and 300W RMS, which gives the sonar plenty of punch for a unit this size.

The 8.3 reflects a basic, keypad-driven unit with a small screen, which doesn't have the size or the extra connections of a premium helm display like the Humminbird XPLORE CMSI+.

For a budget unit, though, I think it's a tidy, sensible build that should cope well with life on a small boat, and the redesigned keypad keeps the controls to a handful of buttons.

Sonar & Features

Down Imaging is the headline feature. It gives a picture-like view of what's below the boat, so timber, brush, bridge pilings and rocks should show up as recognisable shapes rather than vague blobs, and it reads down to 320ft.

Alongside it, there's Dual Beam sonar at 200 and 455 kHz. The narrow beam shows detail, while the wide beam covers more ground, and the coverage figures run to 28, 16 and 74 degrees.

The sonar reads to 600ft at 200 kHz and 320ft at 455 kHz, which is far deeper than you'll need on most UK lakes and reservoirs.

Fish ID+, fish alarms, depth alarms and zoom round it off. So, what if you want to save spots on a map?

GPS chartplotting and trackplotting aren't supported on the DI, and that's where the Humminbird XPLORE CMSI+ comes in, with GPS chart plotting and up to 10,000 synced fish spots. For seeing what's under the boat, though, I think the 8.5 is fair.

Ease of Use

Set-up should be simple enough for a first fish finder. The transducer goes on the transom, the head unit sits on its tilt-and-swivel gimbal, and it runs off a 10.8 to 20 VDC supply, so a 12V battery does the job.

The redesigned keypad keeps things simple, with Fish ID+ to help pick out fish and alarms for both fish and depth, so you don't have to stare at the screen all day.

The 4.3-inch screen has a 272H x 480V pixel matrix, which should be clear enough to read at a glance on a small boat, and zoom helps when you want a closer look at the bottom.

It earns its 8.5 because it's a straightforward unit to live with, and pretty much everything is a button press away. To be fair, a 4.3-inch screen is small next to the Humminbird XPLORE CMSI+, and Down Imaging takes a little learning to read well.

For most small-boat anglers, though, I think it's very easy to use.

Is it good value for money?

Is it good value? I think it is. It's one of the cheaper boat fish finders, yet it gives you Down Imaging as well as Dual Beam sonar, a colour screen and a supplied transducer, and that's a lot of sonar for a modest outlay.

It's a little dearer than the Humminbird Piranha MAX 4, and the extra buys you the picture-like Down Imaging view. If you fish over timber, rocks or snaggy features, that should be well worth having.

It's far cheaper than the Humminbird XPLORE CMSI+, which adds Side Imaging, a much bigger screen and GPS chart plotting for anglers who want to map big waters.

Overall, I'd recommend the Piranha MAX 4 DI to anyone fishing from a small boat for pike, perch, zander or sea fish who wants a clear look at the bottom without a big spend. If all you need is depth and fish, the Piranha MAX 4 does that for less.